“We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.”
– Marcel Proust
Portugal
Myth, A Photograph
“I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now?”
– John Lennon
Inside Man, Street Photography
“It’s not the men in your life that matters, it’s the life in your men.”
– Mae West
Cat, A Photograph
“Only a few find the way, some don’t recognize it when they do – some… don’t ever want to. “
-The Cheshire Cat
Empire, A Photograph
“Loves are like empires: when the idea they are founded on crumbles, they too, fade away.”
– Milan Kundera
A Proud Flower, A Photograph of Nature
“Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful.
And if not the butterflies– and the caterpillars– who will call upon me? You will be far away. . . as for the large animals– I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws.”
And, navely, she showed her four thorns. Then she added:
“Don’t linger like this. You have decided to go away. Now go!”
For she did not want him to see her crying. She was such a proud flower. . .”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
The white you see in the photo is a river of flowers flowing through the farm. Although I prefer black and white photography, photos such as this are meant to be colorful, natural, proud.
What IS, A Photograph of the Mysterious
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious – the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.”
– Albert Einstein
I took this photo in a garden grotto – while exploring its caves. I like that nature has made the bold statement of “IS.”
Odd, A Photograph
“I am an artist you know … it is my right to be odd.”
E.A. Bucchianeri
Refreshment, A Photograph
“To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.”
– Jane Austen
She, A Photograph of Nature
“Switch on the light, she said, I want to know if this is real.”
– José Saramago
Tremendous Things, A Photograph of Friendship
“Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
– E.B. White
Mis-Uninformed, A Photograph of Lisbon
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”
– Mark Twain
Fish, A Photograph
From my favorite book of all time, The Old Man and the Sea…
“Fish,” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.”
– Ernest Hemingway
Oh, Juliet, A Photograph of Portugal
“But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
Oh, that she knew she were!”
– William Shakespeare
Lisboa, adoro-te – My thoughts on Lisbon, Portugal
José Saramago, Portugal’s renowned Nobel Prize winner, once wrote, “We always arrive in the place where someone is waiting for us.”
What if, however, that “someone” is a city? After all, do cities not have hearts? I believe they do. Some are warm and some are cold, but each has it’s own essential personality/characteristics. Do we arrive at a city which “is waiting for us”? It’s how I felt about Lisbon – it had been waiting for my visit. For years I’d been wanting to go, but somehow other trips would take precedence and I’d let the notion of Portugal go for the time being.
Until recently.
Before my departure, a friend of mine (someone quite wealthy) gave me her account of Lisbon.
“Well, it’s kind of…dirty. Run down. But I liked it…sort of,” she recounted.
Though my Lisbon, (Can I call it that? Mine? Will he be upset that I have claimed him, the city, as my own, such the foreigner that I am? And why have I deemed him male when other cities such as Rome are so female to me?) was far from “dirty” (Although I’ve always been partial to dirt) and there was no “sort of” in my opinion. My love for the city is definitive. After all, I just laid claim to it here, didn’t I?
It was lovelier than other cities I’ve been to and it wasn’t because it’s cleanliness or cohesive architecture (which I love architecture so very much.) In fact, Lisbon is quite a mess architecturally, so to speak. Expensive buildings mixed with cheap prison-looking facades of recent took my eyes by surprise. However…. inside of that mess lies the kind of beauty that Neruda speaks of in one of his famous Love Sonnets.
“There are purer than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.”
….
“When you go through the streets
No one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
At the red carpet of gold
That you tread as you pass.
The nonexistent carpet.”
I saw the crystal crown of the city and it’s people though…each time I took a walk…
I came to appreciate the beautiful buildings much more so than in any other place I’ve had the pleasure to visit. The perpetual underdog of Europe has something that the other more aesthetically pleasing cities don’t – it has the mess. Because you see, in between the architectural wonders of centuries past are ugly monstrosities of buildings irupted like small pox during the sixties and seventies to replace the fallen down ancient structures. By seeing the lovely original buildings next to the nasty replacements, I appreciated the beauty even more-so than in those cities where nothing is out-of-place and every facade blends with the next..
And the people? They have the same flavor as the buildings. They’ve been built up, torn down, burned down, smacked down and built again….only to remain strong.
I was right at home.
In conclusion, Lisboa, adoro-te
Play, A Photograph of Portugal
“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Friendship, A Photograph of Life in Lisbon
“Friendship is a precious thing, Sayuri. One mustn’t throw it away.”
– Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
They sat outside on a small make-shift bench laughing and enjoying the warm evening. When asked if I could take their photo they straightened up a bit, making sure to pull their dresses down properly and graced me with beautiful smiles while they giggled to each other. I was reminded how important the women in my life are. So this photo is for all the women I am fortunate enough to call my girlfriends and family….
A Third Power – A Photograph of Life in Lisbon
“There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.”
– Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Here, A Photograph of Life in Lisbon
“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.”
– Aristotle
Here I found no pretense.
Here I found neighbors filling the small bar housed next to the neighborhood soccer field to watch the game together – children laughing.
Here I found a better representation of life in the city of Lisbon than anywhere else.
Here I found authenticity and I suppose, a sample of Portugal’s own 99%.
Rest, A Photograph of Life in Lisbon
“Rest and be thankful.”
-William Wordsworth
Door, A Photograph of Lisbon, Portugal
“There are such moments in life, when, in order for heaven to open, it is necessary for a door to close.”
– José Saramago
The first post from Lisbon, Portugal, or anywhere for that matter, should be a door. After all, upon entering a new place, you have to open the door first.
One Street Shy 